Here Come The Newspapers And Baseball! Who's next? BT?

The LA TIMES, CHIGAGO TRIBUNE and CHICAGO CUBS (same owner) have joined the Chapter 11 bandwagon. BT, here's your chance to make millions, if not billions...then you can go back to being a freebee again. Just think...raises, bonuses and private jets for the staff. Wow! File now for a bailout. LOL!

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As a Chicago native, a fatalistic Cubs fan, a one time daily reader of the Tribune, and a regular viewer of WGN (yes, the Trib owns it, too), this story just plain depresses me.

Newspapers big and small across the country are getting pummeled by declining circulation (more folks get their news now from TV and the Web), and declining ad revenue that's a direct result of the current recession. Merchants just don't have the bucks to buy lots of newspaper ads anymore.

Too bad the Trib didn't jump on the Internet train like the Washington Post, New York Times, and the Atlanta Journal Constitution did. In fact, while the AJC's print circulation is sinking, it's Internet business is booming, more than making up for it's print circulation decline. At least, that's according to Cox, which owns the AJC, is privately held, and therefore doesn't have to open it's books to anyone except maybe the IRS.

Amid all this mess, somehow I don't see Bluffton Today as a White Knight in this situation.

But it's a nice thought.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph (of evil) is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke

ovidsen- I'm with you, my friend. I spent 20 years in Chicago and, except for the sports section, I always thought the Tribune was a much better newspaper than the Sun Times. -And I can't live without WGN!
From what I understand though, the Cubs are being seperated from the Chapt. 11 mess, and they are up for sale (have been for awhile).
-Who wouldn't want to own the Cubs / Wrigley Field???

Newspapers are dying in this country. The NY Times just mortgaged their Manhattan building (about $225 million I believe) to help them pay their bills/dept.
-And I won't shed a single tear when they fall apart.

I wonder what the market rate for a Senate seat is? Should I check ebay?

BTW, your take on the NYTimes building lease proposal isn't entirely accurate. The paper's bean counters have concluded that it would be more economical for the paper to sell the building (and the valuable midtown Manhattan property it sits on) and then lease it back to itself, than to own it outright. In addition, the NYT, a publicly traded firm, continues to make a respectable profit, thanks to it's very successful move to go national with its print edition, and and its rapidly expanding presence on, and revenue from, its various Internet ventures.

In conclusion, you may not like the NYT, but I'd hate to see it fold, just as much as I'd hate to see Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity unplugged IF the FCC's "Fairness Doctrine" is reimposed, which I predict will never happen.

To me, free speech means the free and unfettered exchange of ideas and opinions, even ones you completely disagree with. It's a cornerstone of our nation's liberty.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph (of evil) is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke

ovidsen- Yep, I've been watching this Blagojevich thing unfold today, and thought about starting a new blog about it. But, I think this could be bigger than what has been "allowed" to come out so I decided to wait and see how it goes. I think this story has the potential to be HUGE, but will we ever hear about ALL of the people that were involved? -Doubtful.
The way Fitzgerald has handled this is VERY "strange", IMO. He was quoted as calling this a "political corruption crime spree" and that they "acted quickly to stop that crime spree".
-Blagojevich has been under Federal investigation since 2004 for corruption. Why nip it NOW (quickly), now that it has gone in the direction of the Senate appointment???
"Crime spree's" generally involve a NUMBER of different (corrupt) people. Why would they act "quickly" (after 4 years of investigating this guy already) to STOP the "crime spree"............unless they were worried about WHO ELSE (they may find out) was involved?
Fitzgerald isn't going to tip his hand right now. I mean.....who dropped the dime on this anyway??? -Some are saying Raum Emanual..............which is interesting.

Now it comes down to Fitzgerald sitting down with these people and saying, OK.......you're facing 10-20 years in prison.........so what do you have to say?
-Who knows what may come out at that point! Hey.......we're talking CHICAGO here!!! :-0

You're right........you can't make this kind of stuff up. His "dealings" with the Tribune were classic. He was with holding state funds over their head in a (bribe) effort to get the Tribune to fire part of the editorial board that had written critical stroies about him.
-So much for freedom of the press.

As you know, this is Chicago politics ovidsen. You and I may know about it's corruption, but most of America doesn't.
Let's not forget that our President Elect comes from this environment. I still say that the people in this country have no idea who Obama is, or what he truly stands for.
-But it will be interesting to watch it unfold.

Hey, don't forget we have a bet going about the Fairness Doctrine. You and OW will owe me a beer once the Dems try and bring it back (that is, if we can FIND OW!).
Actually, I think Obama may head in a slightly different direction - although it will have the same result. He may demand that radio stations stick with "local" shows / stories, thus eliminating syndicated shows like Rush, Hannity, Bortz, etc.......
He knows that people are starting to catch on that the so called "FAIRness Doctrine" isn't exactly "fair" - despite the phony names that the Democrats give these bills. So he may have to go at it in a different angle.

Waters warming up...will be coming to a boil soon. :-) Obama is giving the same old replies...he barely knew Blagojevich and the media stated he is trying to quickly distance himself from the "spree and Blagojevich." What I really wonder is what the Feds have on those tapes and how much of it concerns Obama.

I grew up in the Chicago of the 1960s where "Duh Mayer", Richard J. Daley was untouchable, and it was no coincidence that his political (Democratic Party) organization was widely known as "The Machine". And, to a certain extent, it worked. If there was a pothole in the street in front of your home, you called your "precinct captain". Within days, a Streets and Sanitation crew was there to fix it. But you knew... KNEW... that come election day, that friendly precinct captain, or one of his "associates" would literally DRAG you to your neighborhood polling place and "make sure" that you voted Democratic.

So that helped give Chicago one of it's nicknames, "The City that Works". But it sometimes worked in very counter-productive ways. Duh Mayer literally bulldozed approval for the construction of the Kennedy, Eisenhower and Dan Ryan expressways throuh Chicago in the 1950s, which shattered neighborhoods, led to the creation of notorious public housing projects like the Robert Taylor homes and Stateway Gardens, which lined the east side of the Dan Ryan, and which effectively segregated Chicago's South Side better than Lester Madddox's axe handle ever could in Georgia.

Thankfully, these cinder block monstrosities have been demolished the past several years, replaced with mixed use neighborhoods of townhouses, offices, schools and light industry. I don't know if this new "social experiment" will work, but it can't be any worse than what it replaced.

What's so dang funny to me (as a Chicago boy) is that Blagojevich thought he could get away with his machinations. If what prosecutors say are true, he makes every corrupt Illinois politician since the place became a state look like a choir boy. It's been common knowledge for YEARS in Illinois that he was under investigation, but apparently he didn't even try to hide his extra-curricular activities. Hutzpah? Greed? Idiocy? Take your choice.

It reminds me of the unofficial motto of the Chicago Democratic Party Machine in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

"Where's mine?"

BTW, while Barack Obama endorsed Blagojevich when he first ran for Illinois governor in 2002, he effectively severed his ties with the man as the allegations surrounding him increased. In fact, he personally blocked Blagojevich from addressing the Democratic Convention in Denver last summer.

I'm not saying that this makes Obama an angel. We all have skeletons in our closet. But federal prosecutors said today that they had absolutely no evidence that Obama was involved in, or had any inside knowledge of the governor's alleged illegal dealings.

Bu Cantalomas, that doesn't mean there aren't some grubs hiding under some rock somewhere that will link Obama with Blagojevich's alleged crimes.

We shall see.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph (of evil) is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke

I went to college in the early to mid 60's just below Chi-town in Indiana...Valparaiso University off U.S.30. We had a lot of students from the Chicago area and a lot of their conversations would include "The Mayor." Remember 1010 on the radio dial? :-) WLS. Sometime on a cold winter night, it can be picked up down here.

ovidsen- You are correct. Federal prosecutors have said that they aren't pointing any fingers at Obama (for now). Fitzgerald said there isn't anything in THIS (70+ page) document linking Obama to the crimes.........however, the words "President Elect" appear 44 times in the 70 pages.

Obama may have wanted it to appear that he has severed ties with Blagojevich (for political purposes) but once you're involved in Chicago politics, you don't "severe ties" with the Governor of the state if you want to get anything done in your district. -I think the distancing of their relationship was for appearance purposes only.
You simply share too many friends in Chicago politics. In fact, Obama's "land deal" buddy Tony Rezko, was also Blagojevich's "bag man".
-Rezko may be the one to completely spill the beans here if more charges head his way.

Blagojevich wanted something in return for picking a person that Obama wanted to fill his old Senate seat. He sought an appointment in Obama's cabinet - perhaps Sec. of Health & Human Services, or in the Energy Dept. He was also talking about an ambassadorship or getting a lucrative job with a union in exchange for appointing a pro-union candidate. He was also seeking a high paying job for his wife.
-You don't seek these things without some sort of contact with the President Elect, or at least his staff.

Obama has already been caught in a lie (IMO anyway). He came out yesterday (after the story broke about the Governor) and said "I had no contact with the Governor or his office, so I was not aware of what was happening."
Yet, his Chief political strategist David Axelrod (BTW, Axelrod used to work for Blagojevich) was quoted a couple weeks ago (when asked by the Press about Obama's open Senate seat) as saying that Obama has indeed been speaking with Gov. Blagojevich about the appointment of his replacement.
-Someone isn't telling the truth there, and why (at that time before this came out) would Axelrod lie about something like that?

I'm waiting for Obama to come out and say "This isn't the Rod Blagojevich that I knew....." etc.
Just like he said that "this is the Preacher I knew" (for 20 years)........."this isn't the Tony Rezko I knew" (for 20 years)......."this isn't the Rev. Phlager I knew"......"this isn't the William Ayers that I knew from my neighborhood"..........."this isn't the ACORN organization that I knew when I worked with them"......etc....etc.....etc.....

Canta- WLS is 890am in Chicago now. It was my favorite talk radio station while I lived there and I can never wait to tune it in when I drive back for a visit. If it's a clear night, I can usually start picking it up by the time I hit Cincinnati.

Been many years...your right to the tune of 8-9-0 in Chicago. 1010 is, I was thinking of a station in NYC...WINS. I used to be able to pick up KOKO in Oklahoma City, WLS in Chicago, WABC in NYC and another out of New Orleans...all 100,000 watt stations. Conditions had to be right...as in cold and clear nights. I was able to use an old TV antenna I had jury rigged up in the attic for AM/FM use at longer range.

Back in the college days we use to joke that WLS stood for 'worlds lousiest station." :-)

No...not developing. MAINTAINED. Same ole' talking points as seen and heard from the likes of SH and BO. Reaching and grasping for straws trying to link, once again using "guilt by association", Obama to corrupt figures.

In YOUR opinion - and is just that - Obama "lied."

Hmmmmm....

"Axelrod issued a brief written statement on Tuesday saying he had been wrong.

"I was mistaken when I told an interviewer last month that the president-elect has spoken directly to Governor Blagojevich about the Senate vacancy. They did not then or at any time discuss the subject," Axelrod said.

Relations between Obama and Blagojevich had long been tense, with Obama pointedly not including his own governor in campaign events."

Of course, the typical reply will be along the lines of, "Well, he's just saying that to cover up _________." Please, go ahead and feel free to use it. Again, it is just what you stated...your OPINION.

Sheesh...the president-elect has so much crap on his plate being served nice and warm from the piles of crap that the last 8 - 12 years have stored in Washington, and the neo-cons are STILL upset over his victory. Still crying like poor ole' Sean and Bill over on FOX. Trying to link ANYTHING going wrong with Obama. Hell, Hannity's even trying to lay the economic crisis on his shoulders now.

What I find relief in is that the likes of Limbaugh and Rove have actually commented on how they approve of his appointments so far and some of the atmosphere he has created, actually meeting and calling those politicians on the "other side" (I would "Dark Side" but, being a stormtrooper/clone trooper fanatic, they don't deserve such a nomination), telling them how he looks forward to working WITH them, how he plans on listening to their fears and concerns, and how he plans on helping them out. What Conservative presidential-elect has done that?

So, for those Conservatives out there who have, for the last 8 years, bashed those who spoke out against Bush, telling them, "That's not what he said,"...take your own advice. You're doing the same thing as the whackos on the far left have been doing and show you're fundamentally no different from one another.

We give every new president the CHANCE to make changes. Y'all are still petitioning on his birth records for crying out loud! Give the man a chance. He'll speak about this at length, we're sure, when the time is appropriate. Right now, with a failing economy (where were you Conservatives the last decade or so when this was all taking place? Oh that's right...in spite of the fact of controlling Congress 6 of the last 8 years, NOTHING was done), a failing auto industry, record unemployment, wars overseas AND nut-cases attacking his every move/non-move, word/non-words, this president-elect is facing a situation no other has had to.

And Hannity...you would be much more digestible if you'd lay off the school-yard mentality by delegating "nicknames" to those in office. "Prince Harry" referencing Harry Reid? C'mon...show some class...and education.

This has been a fascinating string that you started with your post on the Chicago Tribune filing for bankruptcy, Cantalomas. Every comment has been enlightening.

When I was a kid, our Chicago area family used to spend summers in a shack on Cayuga Lake, one of the Finger Lakes in upstate New York. At night, the other kids in the neighborhood would join my brother and me in an outbuilding across the road from our "cottage" and play Hearts, penny-ante poker, Monopoly while drinking Cokes, smoking the occasional Marlboro.... while listening to either WLS (890 AM) or WCFL (1000 AM), the two competing top 40 stations in Chicago. Thanks to the "skip", which occurred after the sun set and turned the ionosphere into a "mirror" for AM (and short wave) radio, those two stations came in loud and clear, 700 miles away. Most of our friends lived in the area (Seneca County) year round, and they were in AWE of the music they were hearing out of Chicago (Beatles, Stones, the other top 40 staples of the time) mainly because the AM stations they could get in the daytime (from Rochester, Syracuse, Ithaca and a few other small cities) were so musically conservative you'd be lucky to hear a Herman's Hermits song.

This was obviously before the "discovery" of FM radio.

Years later, when I was working a 4am to noon shift for a broadcast news operation in Washington, I'd drive to work listening to WLS replaying the previous day's Steve Dahl Garry Meier talk show. Funny stuff that kept me from nodding off at the wheel.

FYI... WLS, WCFL, KOKO, WKBW in Buffalo and WBZ in Boston (among others) are all designated by the FCC as "clear channel" stations. Not to be confused with Clear Channel, the broadcast conglomerate that owns hundreds of radio stations, big and small, around the country.

By law, their transmission power was set at 50,000 watts, and still is. The original "clear channel" station designation dates back to before WW2. The federal government wanted powerful AM stations strategically positioned across the US so that, in the event of a national emergency, people with working radios could find SOMETHING to listen to, and maybe even learn something about what the emergency was.

Just a little bit of radio trivia for ya!

To be more on topic, I think the links between Illinois Governor Blagojevich and "his people" with President elect Obama and "his people" are going to be thoroughly explored over the next several months. In this way, it'll be sort of like Watergate. Every day we're going to learn a new little tidbit.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph (of evil) is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke

If you don't see the patterns; If you keep swallowing the BS they're giving you; if you can't (or don't want to) believe what your ears are hearing; and if you don't smell a rat.......then I can't help you out my friend.
-I could recommend a good ear, nose, and throat specialist though! ;-)

All we're going to see is Chicago politicians distancing themselves from Blagojevich in the next few days. And DENY, DENY, DENY............it's the Chicago way.

This has nothing to do with anything Hannity or O'Reiley are saying or doing. -In fact, O'Reiley has gone out of his way to give Obama the benefit of the doubt on MANY issues (too many IMO).
But I DO find it interesting that you diminish a News channel for digging into corruption and asking tuff questions of our next President of the United States, but the channels that are giving him (and HAVE given him) a pass don't seem to bother you at all.

"Obama has his hands full with other crap".........."Let's just give the man a chance"......etc.
-Yea right! NOW, all of a sudden, "bi-partisianship" has become important to some of you!
-Where has THIS been for the past 8 years?

Of COURSE Axelrod is back-peddling on his comments from just a couple weeks ago. -What else would you expect him to do?
But keep in mind that, a couple weeks ago the Gov. of Illinois wasn't under arrest........so WHY would he have made up the story of Obama speaking with Blagojevich about his Senate replacement THEN?
-He wouldn't have.
Open your eyes physco, Obama (or at the very least Raum Emanual) must have been in conversation with Blagojevich about the Senate seat or else the Governor wouldn't have been so upset (even calling Obama a "mother f'er") that he wasn't getting everything he wanted.
-If Obama wasn't negotiating with the Governor, then someone else was doing it for him.

I'm here to tell you that, when it comes to corruption, it is NEVER small in Chicago and numerous people are usually involved. Who gets thrown under the bus and/or takes one for the team is the only question.
-And Blagojevich doesn't seem like the type to "take one for the team"....he may indeed squeal.
....But of course, the Press is already setting the table (to protect Obama) just in case that happens, by questioning Blagojevich's "honesty" and "wondering if we could believe him if he implicates Obama in this, or says anything bad about Obama and his involvement".
-Typical of todays mainstream / leftwing apologist media.

We simply don't know yet what kind of connections existed between the Blagojevich camp and the Obama camp.

Think Watergate. The "intrusion" into Democratic Party offices at the Watergate complex occurred in June, 1972. It took more than 2 years before President Nixon admitted he tried to cover up the break-in and resigned. And it was 33 years after the original crime that former Federal Bureau of Investigation Deputy Director William Mark Felt, Sr. was identified as Deep Throat, the Washington Post's main source on the Watergate break-in coverup, in the June, 2005 Vanity Fair magazine.

No matter what political persuasions our country's journalists and news organizations may have, the truth WILL come out. I'll bet you (another) beer on this.

Who knows? Obama may be impeached, or forced to resign. We just don't know yet.

One thing we do agree on. When it comes to political corruption, Chicago, and Illinois in general take the prize.

Never forget the unofficial motto of the old Daley Machine in Chicago.

"Where's mine?"

"The only thing necessary for the triumph (of evil) is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke